The lagoon monster, the ninth stop: Milan

Date: dal 5 ottobre all’8 ottobre 2021

Place: Piazza Gae Aulenti (MI)

Event: VISION Milan Glass Week, flagship event of Vitrum 2021

Between Murano glass and water: “The lagoon monster” is the artistic fountain protagonist of Vision Milan Glass Week

During its long journey between the main Italian and foreign locations, between 5^th and 8^th October 2021 “The lagoon monster” returned to Milan for the second time, thanks to Forme d’Acqua Venice Fountains and the collaboration with Consorzio Promovetro Murano.

In 2014 it touched the Milanese soil for the first time in the exhibition “The art of glass today in Italy”, curated by Jean Blanchaert, at Villa Necchi Campiglio-FAI, however, from 5^th to 8^th October 2021 it re-emerged from the waters to show themselves in Piazza Gae Aulenti, on the occasion of Vision Milan Glass Week, the flagship collateral event of Vitrum 2021, the event aimed at the excellence of glass.

A four-day event in which Piazza Gae Aulenti became The Square, the beating heart of Vision Milan Glass Week, where numerous workshops, presentations, networking, conferences and shows were held, all open to the public and treated through the sustainable vision of world seen through the lens of glass. The main protagonist in Gae Aulenti was “the lagoon monster”: the flagship artistic installation with its long body resurfaced from the waters. His voice echoing through the buildings and streets of Milan, an endless echo that referred to the sound of the abyss and the waves of the Venetian lagoon.

Jean Blanchaert – gallery owner, curator, art critic and cultural consultant of “the lagoon monster” – follows the monster from its first exhibition and, on the occasion of this second Milanese stop, tells:

“The lagoon monster is the result of the collaboration between the two artists: the architect Simona Marta Favrin and the master glassmaker Nicola Moretti. It’s an incredible being with an extraordinary personality, like that of King Kong. This sculpture has already been exhibited in prestigious places, such as in Punta della Dogana in Venice and when we had the singular opportunity to exhibit it in the waters of the Basilica Cisterna – Yerebatan Sarnıcı of Istanbul all the citizens flocked to admire the creature, endowed with a voice musical and visceral. This in Piazza Gae Aulenti is the second Milanese stop for Martino (proper name of the lagoon monster), which was already exhibited at Villa Necchi in 2014 as part of an exclusive FAI exhibition. When Mastro Geppetto created Pinocchio he would never have imagined giving life to a person, the same thing happened to the creators of Martino who, once realized, took his own path proving to have an intelligent and good soul.”